The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of apple tree hereinafter referred to as ‘Seaton99’.
The discovery was made in 1999 amongst a block of ‘Heritage Gala’ apple trees growing in a cultivated orchard in the Tasman District of Nelson Province in New Zealand, whereby one tree on the end of a row of trees was identified that exhibited many and varied apparent mutations of the variety that was systematically planted in an orchard block of apple trees. The parent tree is believed to be a ‘Heritage Gala’ tree, where ‘Heritage Gala’ refers to a historical New Zealand bred apple variety. Due to the location of the tree and its significant different attributes from all others, it was not possible to establish whether the tree was a seedling positioned strategically for expedient observation, or a chance mutation coincidentally occurring on the end of a row of trees, as the orchard was purchased with the trees established and enquiries failed to reveal any knowledge or information.
The inventor selected and propagated trees from the identified discovery to test and consider the attributes of the discovery, and after many years of observation, trials and elimination chose two principal new apple varieties that were distinctly different visually and in eating attributes.
‘Seaton99’ is one of the chosen selections and was propagated from the selected plant material and planted out on rootstocks M.793, M9, and CG202 in moderate numbers to further test and examine stability and identified characteristics.